The crew of the Enterprise has been court-martialed by Klingon request for the ship stolen and the lives lost in Star Trek III. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, a mysterious probe that disables just about everything is headed straight for Earth. The probe sends a signal no one can understand, and when it doesn’t get a response it begins to vaporize the Earth’s oceans and ionize its atmosphere: a recipe for disaster. Spock, newly born again, discovers that the signal is the song of the humpback whale: extinct since the 21st century. In classic Star Trek fashion, the crew go back in time to 1986 San Francisco to nab themselves some humpback whales.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Enterprise returns to Earth to be decommissioned, with Kirk and the crew still mourning Spock. A visit from the Vulcan’s father, Sarek, offers some hope that their friend is only mostly dead–just before Spock gave his life to save the ship, he mind-melded with Dr. McCoy to implant his living spirit, or katra, in the doctor’s head. Kirk decides to go to the Genesis Planet to retrieve Spock’s body and take him to Vulcan, but there are two problems: Starfleet has classified Genesis as off-limits, and they don’t have a ship to get them there.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

The U.S.S. Reliant makes an unexpected discovery on a scientific mission to the Ceti Alpha system: the genetically-engineered superman Khan Noonien Singh and the surviving crew of the S.S. Botany Bay, who has been cooling his heels on the inhospitable fifth planet for the last fifteen years. Khan’s somewhat pissed that his old friend James Kirk never called or wrote since marooning them there, so he takes over Reliant and begins plotting his revenge, which mostly revolves around a) inserting gross, brain-controlling slugs into Captain Terrell and Commander Chekov’s ears, b) stealing the Genesis Device, an experimental probe that can terraform a dead planet within days (what could possibly go wrong?), and b) killing Kirk. A person has to dream big, and galactic overachiever Khan is reaching for the stars.

One year ago today, Torie and I posted our first Star Trek Re-Watch post on this site, “Spock’s Brain.” (Sorry about that.) When we launched The Viewscreen, we weren’t sure if we would even have an audience over here, but we were surprised and pleased that so many readers followed us and faithfully participated in weekly discussions of one of our favorite television series.

We are thrilled that this site has developed such a terrific community of amazing, intelligent people from all over the world and widely different backgrounds, united only by an interest in Star Trek–even if we don’t always agree. (Especially if we don’t always agree.) We appreciate every one of you. As we conclude “season one” of The Viewscreen, Torie and I thank you for your support, for making this site what it is today, and for giving it a future that we can hopefully all explore together.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

A giant space cloud, impervious to conventional weapons but massively destructive, is headed straight for Earth. Naturally the Enterprise, fresh from a renovation, is the only ship in interception range. Admiral Kirk temporarily takes control of the ship from its captain, Captain Decker, and reassembles his old crew–including Spock, who just failed to complete the Kolinahr–to confront the cloud.

At last, Torie and I have fully recovered from the Star Trek Animated Series Re-Watch, and have completed or set aside our other pesky obligations, so it’s finally time to launch our rewatch of the Star Trek films!

We’ll start things off where it all began with Star Trek: The Motion Picture this Thursday, October 6, then proceed through the rest of the films on the same schedule for the following five weeks, from planet Genesis and straight through the final frontier to the undiscovered country–with a short detour to 1986 to say hello to some whales and grab a slice of pizza.

We hope you’ll join us for this exciting conclusion to the adventures of the original crew of the starship Enterprise and help give them a fitting sendoff. We’ve enjoyed sharing this series in all its formats with you all for the past two years, and we’ve both been looking forward to talking about the films for a while. Odds are even, it’ll be a good time! And as always, we appreciate it if you would spread the word to encourage an engaging discussion.